Attack of the Wolf King

Attack of the Wolf King is Haste the Day’s fifth studio album, but their first with new band members Dave Krysl, Giuseppe Capolupo and Scotty Whelan. Original members Michael Murphy and Stephen Keech both keep the Indiana Christian metalcore quintet’s sound familiar to fans, especially in the opening “Wake Up the Sun,” which tears out of the gate with a ferocity strengthened by soaring guitar harmonies that recall moments of Killers-era Iron Maiden. “Dog Like Vultures” is a live favorite that translates well in a studio setting as Murphy and Keech contrast their respective clean and screamed vocals with soaring melodies. “The Quiet, Deadly Ticking” explodes like a roadside bomb, throwing jagged pieces of cacophonous shrapnel before the chorus shifts gears and drives straight into a giant wall of palatable melody. And “Travesty” is all kinds of catchy. From its infectious opening lead to more Maidenesque harmonics in the verse and a contagious chorus of soaring screamo rhapsodizing, it’s nearly impossible to walk away from this one without it sticking in your head.